Archive for the 'Mike Brown' Tag Under 'Lakers' Category

EL SEGUNDO – The first set of ESPN power rankings has the Lakers ranked 20th of 30 NBA teams. No one knows how long the best player will be out, but by now all seem to agree it will be quite a while. The point guard turns 40 this season and Pau Gasol’s younger brother tweeted on Tuesday, “Who is Shawne Williams?”

The last time expectations were this low, there were only 14 championship banners hanging in Staples Center.

But with all of that, it’s easy to forget that this season, which opens Tuesday against the Lakers, is starting with more optimism than even a year ago when Dwight Howard was newly arrived and the Lakers already off the rails of their championship aspirations.

“It’s very rare for a team to go 0-8 in a preseason,” Pau Gasol said, recalling the ominous beginning to a disappointing season. “I think it’s definitely a big alarm there. So we knew something wasn’t clicking, wasn’t working, for whatever reasons. So it was an indicator.” The Lakers opened the regular season 1-4, leading to Mike Brown’s dismissal.

“I think everything happens for a reason,” D’Antoni said. “This preseason has been much more positive than last year’s and we’ve done things a lot better. The atmosphere, the attitude of players, the togetherness of the team has been really positive.”

Brown had success with LeBron James and reached the 2007 NBA Finals, but Brown was fired in 2010 -- the same year James bolted for Miami. The Lakers hired Brown in 2011 to replace Phil Jackson and fired him a week and a half into the season in November 2012.

Brown has long been close with Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant, whom he consulted with prior to his interview that won Brown the Lakers' job. The Cavaliers fired another member of the Lakers' family, former player Byron Scott, who was 66-166 in three seasons with Cleveland.

It's looking more and more like Mike Brown might be rehired as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach by Chris Grant, Brown's good friend who remains the Cavaliers' general manager.

Grant accented defense, Brown's specialty, and said the next coach will be "a teacher, a grinder," according to the Associated Press -- fitting with Brown's description. The Lakers will be paying off about $8 million of Brown's salary after firing him a week and a half into the 2012-13 regular season.

The Cavaliers fired former Lakers standout Byron Scott, a longtime favorite of Jerry Buss, as head coach and want to move forward with someone else coaching young star Kyrie Irving.

“It's going to take Mike a little bit of time because he's got his two starting bigs in Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol," Brown said. "So now what he's going to have to continue to try to mix and match and find minutes for is for Antawn Jamison. Do you play him at the power forward or do you try to play him at small forward some? So there are some things, I think, that Coach D'Antoni is still trying to figure out.”

Brown allowed that injuries to Gasol and Steve Nash are a big part of D'Antoni's problems.

"They've been struggling, obviously, as of late, but I think they do have a nice team, and Coach D'Antoni has won many times before in the past," Brown said. "Especially when they get Steve Nash back and Pau, I think obviously those are two big ingredients for that team to be on the upswing. As soon as they get those guys back on the hardwood, I think they'll be heading in the right direction.”

About the Lakers firing him, Brown said: "I appreciate the opportunity that the Buss family gave me and Mitch Kupchak gave me. Coaching the Lakers was an exciting, great time. It was a dream job for a lot of people, including myself. And it's their team and so whenever, however they wanted to operate it I was okay with. It's not my decision to talk about the decision that they made. I just live by whatever decision they make."

"I always think you have someone in mind," West said of the Lakers during Mike Brown' s struggles, "and it looked like Phil Jackson was going to be the coach, and for whatever reason, it didn't work out that way. ... I sort of thought that was Phil's job to have if he wanted to coach."

As I detailed in my column about how Jackson was left feeling mistreated and misled by the Lakers, it boiled down to the Lakers prioritizing the guy with no titles over the one with 11 -- whether right or wrong. West said it might be right based on how well Steve Nash will do in his old offense, aside from how Mike D'Antoni's pick-and-roll system will "benefit Dwight Howard a lot (because) he doesn't have the skill set of (Kareem) Abdul-Jabbar or Shaquille O'Neal or someone like that."

"I do think they need a style that will let Steve Nash be Steve Nash," West said. "Otherwise, I think you put him out there and I don't see what he's able to accomplish as a player without the ball in his hands."

Coach Bernie Bickerstaff gave newly hired Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni a few insights about the players and their plans for San Antonio, then asked him for a favor.

“I told him to hurry up and get this seat …. it's hot,” Bickerstaff told a crowd of reporters after Monday's practice.

Bickerstaff, named interim Friday when the Lakers fired Mike Brown, could be coaching his final game with the Lakers on Tuesday when they face the once-beaten Spurs. If D'Antoni, who is recovering from knee replacement surgery, receives medical clearance, he is expected to be on the bench when the Lakers play Phoenix on Friday.

“I told him to hurry up and get this seat so I can get some of these microphones out of my face,” Bickerstaff, 68, said.

Bickerstaff declined to talk about how D'Antoni was hired over Phil Jackson, preferring to stick to on-court matters.

Kobe Bryant hated to see Phil Jackson retire two seasons ago. Not only because it meant the end of a great championship run for Bryant, who won five NBA titles with Jackson, but because of the way it ended.

The Dallas Mavericks swept the defending NBA champions out of the 2011 playoffs and Jackson into retirement with a 122-86 embarrassment in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals. Bryant scored 17 points on a gimpy leg in Jackson's finale and that is what has lingered with the Lakers star.

"The one thing that's always bothered me is that his last year I wasn't able to give him my normal self because I was playing on one leg and it's always eaten away at me," Bryant said after Friday's 101-77 victory against Golden State. "The last year of his career, I wasn't able to give him everything I had."

Bryant could have a shot at redeeming himself should Jackson return as the Lakers coach. The Lakers fired Mike Brown and reportedly have reached out to Jackson.

"He's too great of a coach to have had to go out that way," Bryant said. "That's my personal sentiment. Like I said, for me, I took it to heart because I couldn't give him everything I had physically because my knee was shot. That's always kind of bothered me."

The Lakers' firing of head coach Mike Brown on Friday speaks to the urgency that ownership feels with regard to this and next season, the last two prime chances for the Lakers to win championships before planning to cut payroll below the luxury-tax plateau in accordance with the new collective bargaining agreement.

Lakers owner Jerry Buss, 78, also has had health problems and isn't getting any younger. One of his goals is for the Lakers to have more total NBA championships than the rival Boston Celtics, with the Celtics currently leading, 17-16.

"The bottom line is the team was not wining at the pace that we expected the team to win," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said Friday afternoon. "And we didn't see improvement."

Among the reasons for firing Brown just five games into the season were his failure to deliver the dominant defense he suggested he would, a struggling bench unit with peculiar rotations and Brown's inability to get messages across to the team. Brown was notified at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning of the decision, which Kupchak said was made by Lakers owner Jerry Buss, executive vice president Jim Buss and him starting Thursday.

"We're not looking five or 10 years down the road," Kupchak said. "This team was built to contend this year. There's no guarantee that this team will win a championship, but we feel it can be deeply in the hunt."

Mike Brown chats with Kobe Bryant during the Lakers' 99-91 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in their home opener.

Unhappy with their dismal start, the Lakers have fired Mike Brown as their head coach five games into the current season.

The Lakers have not made any official announcement about the move (GM Mitch Kupchak will address media at 12:30 p.m.), but several reports said Brown's agent, Warren LeGarie, confirmed his client has been relieved of his coaching duties.